Hi,
I just committed to SVN a proof-of-concept "tech drawing LPE" wich allows constructing a circle with adjustable center and radius. Apply it to any path and it will draw a circle whose center is the starting point and whose circumference passes through the end point of this path (intermediate points will be ignored). Dragging the points of the original path will make the circle move/resize accordingly.
(Aside: Despite my current time constraints I just couldn't help giving this a try since the LPE aproach sounded so tempting. @Johan: This is nothing short of awesome!! Your framework is sooo easy to use and a pleasure to work with.)
The good news is: This shows that my tech drawing proposal is absolutely accomplishable. However, now that I have seen how easy to do it actually is I almost feel ashamed for proposing this as a whole GSoC project. ;-) I coded this in a few hours, and most of the work was actually wading through the 2geom Path class definitions in order to find out how it works. So the various constructions I propose in [1] should be implementable within a week or so (say 2 weeks for other ones that pop up as desired).
On the other hand, special care must be taken in the implementation of an intuitive and easy-to-use yet powerful user interface. I suppose that this may in fact require the bulk of the coding time since we have to provide a linkage between on-canvas actions and LPE parameters. Telling from the other LPE files there seems to be basic support for this but I guess it would have to be considerably expanded and unified.
Still, even if I anticipate a whole month for the UI work I'm concerned that this is overall too easy a project to propose for GSoC. On the other hand, according to the following thread on the GSoC mailing list:
it would be possible to change the project even after the end of the application period (in case a student is chosen and the mentoring organization agrees). So would it be an option for me to finish my application for the tech drawing project but during SoC actually work on the 3D features which I proposed in a separate thread? I have a first draft for such a proposal, too, but am concerned it will not get finished in time for the application deadline.
Any comments from possible mentors?
In any case, I will try to get my tech drawing proposal finished and will post it to this list later today to allow for review and critical comments.
Many thanks in advance, Max
[1] Draft for the Tech Drawing proposal: